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Recent months have been very interesting on the training front. Not only is technology fundamentally changing the way people look at training systems, implementation, and results, but demographics and changing social norms are also rapidly impacting the way organisations look to develop their own staff. Some things feel like they will never change. The organisational focus on delivering ‘cost effective’ (read: cheap) training, often at the expense of quality, is something constantly battled by trainers, and it appears to be a global issue. It’s incredibly common, and comes with no little amount of frustration, that many training departments assess training options on a pure outlay basis, with no regards to overall benefit from higher quality training. Results measured in terms of volume of training produced and delivered at the lowest cost are unlikely to be the best decision for your organisation. This is not to say that training delivered should not be cost effective. It should deliver value for money, but should also deliver quality, tangible benefits, and be viewed with a view to return on investment, not simply limiting capital outlay whilst ticking the training box. When viewing, reviewing, and procuring training programmes, organisations have a range of criteria which they use to assess suitability. These vary depending on a wide range of factors, but invariably include a range of similar facets from one company to another. Over recent months, we have noticed a shift to a few key words which have increasingly been used with regards to developing training content and programmes. In no particular order, Fun, Creative, and Interactive seem to be the buzzwords of the moment. I believe all of these elements are vital for successful training. What is a worry is the order in which they are presented by clients. On a number of occasions in recent memory, the key requirement for training is that it should be ‘fun’. I am genuinely baffled by this, as are a number of training professionals I know. The main reason people ask for ‘fun’ training is due to feedback that previous training has been ‘boring’. There is also a perception that younger employees are more receptive to this type of training. Often when discussing this issue with L&D professionals, the impression appears to be that training is being purposely ‘dumbed down’ simply to be more appealing to younger staff who the organisation wants to appease. Are we that worried about staff hopping to the next best thing because training isn’t as much fun as they would like it to be? I would hazard a guess that if we are working to mollify our staff by making training a bit jollier, there are likely to be some serious, underlying organisational issues which need to be addressed. I hope that I am wrong. It is frightening to think that we are intentionally providing potentially substandard training so that we can continue to ‘engage’ younger folks and keep them happy, for which ever statistical outcome this happens to benefit on any given day. Weaving in elements of Fun to training, being Creative, and Interactive, are vital elements to a successful outcome, and can help reinforce the concepts of the content, increase the training effectiveness, and improve the skills and knowledge of your workforce. But all of those following points should be coming before the element of having fun.

Those involved in training and development at an organisational level should be looking for resources which develop and advance those being trained. They should be looking for speed to competence, professional development, and longer term pathway options for those staff to advance for organisational benefit, as well as individual gain. Elements of Fun, Creativity and Interactivity all aid immensely in these goals, but if you enter the training discussion focused on Fun as your first and most important criterion, at the expense of solid development, you are doing your employees a disservice. If ‘Fun’ is the name of the game, and not a real focus on desirable, beneficial outcomes, I have good news! I can save you time and money in an instant. Send your staff bowling, or to a theme park, or to the ArtScience Museum. Put them on the bus to Legoland. They will probably have bags of fun, they can be creative with their Instagram photos, and they can interact with one another all day long. L&D professionals must continue to look for these elements when selecting training providers, programmes, and development pathways. This, however, should not be at the expense of professional development, but as something working alongside, and supporting, the core idea of developing staff competence.

If you need assistance developing a training framework for your organisation or development pathways for staff, contact us at enquiries@piran.com.sg for a confidential discussion.

Understanding the performance gap, in any business environment, is critical for development and progression. A thorough analysis of this gap, designed to see what needs to be improved, is essential for current and future development. Many businesses understand this; what is often lacking, however, is a good understanding of the tools available to fill the gap.

The performance gap is the difference between current or actual performance, and the desired level of performance to be achieved. Form a human capital perspective, this performance gap is the different between an individuals current ability in a given role, and the performance you would like them to achieve in an ideal scenario.All too often, this gap is identified and the immediate response to how to correct the gap is through a form of training. There is a range of available options that can be used to fill this gap, of which training is a very important one, but not the only, or necessarily ‘best’, solution.Structured training fulfils a vitally important part of a workforce’s continued development. It provides the ability to individual to learn, pick up new knowledge and skills, and work towards increasing workplace performance. It may also lead to certification, which individuals can carry with them as they progress on their own career. A key element missing from the above is one which is much harder to train; attitude.In many organisations, performance will be assessed using the KSA triangle; Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude. Depending on the type of performance gap that is found, training may not necessarily be the best solution for an individual’s future progression. Coaching or mentoring, including leadership development, may be much more suitable to address a particular attitudinal problem. Skills may be developed using on the job training, using a ‘buddy’ system to develop a particular skill regularly used but currently in deficit. Knowledge of certain areas could be developed through attending a conference, seminar, or workshop, or through additional reading.Whilst it is unlikely to cause major headaches to be assigning training unnecessarily, it is worth organisations considering the performance gap they are aiming to address, and matching this up with the available options to cover this need. In a perfect world, this may even tie in to the individual employees own goals and motivations!What is truly essential is that employers do a thorough job of analysing the performance gap. Assigning bulk training to hundreds, or even thousands, of end users, may help to tick certain regulatory requirements, or look good for your brands corporate social responsibility. You have to questions whether approaches like this really help to bridge the current learning gap your employees have. A detailed analysis will really help you to provide quality to your employees, ensuring you have a workforce who has the requisite Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes, to bring you success as an organisation.

We are pleased to announce the launch of three exciting new courses, developed by Piran Consulting and run in conjunction with the Aventis Centre for Organizational Psychology, part of the Aventis School of Management. Aventis offers an unsurpassed experience in accelerated learning, which fosters both intellectual growth and development to meet current and future challenges of businesses around the world.

The new courses will be run for the first time in as public programmes in May and June, as 2 day workshops designed to facilitate the development of ideas and practical solutions for recruiters and talent acquisition specialists. There is limited coverage for training courses of this nature in Singapore, and so we will provide solutions, information, and ideas to improve knowledge, skills and workplace performance. The courses are:

These courses can also be run as in house programmes for a range of organisations, including corporates, small and medium sized enterprises, specialist recruitment consultancies and agencies, and government bodies. We are happy to discuss your organisational or individual needs, and you can contact us with any specific queries.

This is a very exciting project and we look forward to seeing you on one of our courses very soon!